The World Ends With Us
by agroxneko
Summary: Death can be a funny thing, especially when you have a week to win it back with the last person you expect. Spoilers for season 3.


**A/N: **I'm still working on Long Forgotten Memories, but I had inspiration for this story and thought it was time to post it. It's based on the game The World Ends With You, thus where I got most of the title.

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><p><strong>Day 1<br>**

Santana stood in the middle of the sidewalk and stared ahead of her, slightly dazed. She had a terrible headache and she brought her hand to the side of her head, where it ached the most. She looked around and had forgotten what she was doing earlier, or where she was or how she got to where she was. She groaned and looked around for bench or somewhere to sit, but it wasn't a park so there was nothing. Noticing she was in front of stores, she decided to walk over to the wall and sat down against it.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember what had happened in the day, but came up with nothing. She opened her eyes again and looked to where she was standing and saw her backpack. Oh right, she had joined the Cheerios again. Santana mentally scolded at herself for forgetting such an important fact and stood up to grab it, then went back to her place on the floor. She zipped it open and pulled out her cell phone. Unfortunately, her uniform didn't have pockets, and the only thing that did was the Cheerios sweater but it was way too warm to wear that. After all, it was summer, and only the second day of school.

That was when she noticed that she wasn't all that warm. It was summer, one of the hottest days and the sun was shining bright, yet she didn't entirely feel the affect of the warm day. She felt the sun rays hit her, yet she didn't necessarily _feel_ hot. She frowned but quickly shrugged it off, thinking it was nothing. She paid attention back to her phone and looked at the time and noticed it was after school. She looked up to the sky again and wondered what had happened that day. As she remembered the headache came back and she rubbed her head again in frustration and decided to try and remember from the second she woke up.

The morning had started out the same as always, well, not exactly the same since both her and Brittany were Cheerios again, and that meant wearing the uniform. And breakfast was different, since she couldn't eat anything she wanted anymore. Other than that it was practically the same. Then she went to Glee in the morning and Mr. Schuester welcomed them back and showed them the trophy. But there was something different there too, but she wasn't sure what. Right, Sam and Lauren were gone and Rachel and Finn were back together even though they cost everyone nationals. Then he talked about some pianos that were painted purple, and he put them around the school. Santana scowled at the memory, that's right, one was in the lunchroom. And Rachel started singing. Santana's lips twitched upward at the corners though. Singing on top of the table's was pretty fun, and she had to admit the three of them, her, Brittany and, god forbid, Rachel Berry, did sound pretty good together.

Though her frown came back at the memory of food flying at them, and that was what hurt for everyone. They came back into the choir room covered in food and Mr. Schuester still egged them on, as if it didn't matter to any of them how humiliating it was. And damn it was humiliating. Of course then there was the other piano, and even though Santana had fun dancing with Blaine singing she still had to have the other cheerios put gasoline or whatever Sue gave them on the piano. It wasn't really her fault, Sue made her and she wanted to be head cheerio since Quinn wasn't even thinking of going back, even after their little talk. At least she wasn't the one who lit it, it was Quinn. Though she did wonder how Quinn even knew to through the cigar anyway. Not that it mattered, because Sue got what she wanted in the end.

Santana scoffed when she remembered where all of that left her. Of course it was then that Mr. Schuester decided to kick her out, despite everything she had done for him and the Glee Club. She really hated that man a lot of times. But that didn't mean she would just leave with her head down, no she made sure she had the last say and left with her head held high, because she was Santana fucking Lopez and no one messed with her like that, not even Mr. Schuester.

Santana frowned and closed her eyes. That left her at the end of the day, but how did she end up outside in front of stores? She cursed as she tried to remember, but nothing came and her head was killing her for reasons she didn't know. Then she remembered leaving Glee and instead of going to Sue Sylvester, which was probably what everyone expected she would do, she went to her car to go home. And that led to now, with a killer headache and completely confused.

She stuffed her phone in her backpack and was about to zip it closed when two small things caught her eye. Off to the side, on top of her spare uniform, were two pins. She reached in and picked them up and held them in front of her with one hand. They were pins, and she was pretty sure she had never seen them before in her life. One was black with some kind of odd design and the other was a different design and color. She looked at them for a long time before looking back to her back and moving to put them in, but stopped herself. She wasn't sure why, but it was like something was telling her she should hold on to them. It slightly freaked her out, but she decided to hold on to them.

She stood up, picked up her backpack, and flung it over one of her shoulders. If she couldn't remember, sitting around thinking about it in the middle of a public place wasn't going to help. She walked down the sidewalk and looked out the toward parking lot trying to find her car, after all she must have drove since that was the only way for her to get around places. As she walked down the sidewalk, she wasn't necessarily paying attention and she didn't see a man walking towards her until the last second when she turned her head again. It was too late to move out of the way and Santana expected them to bump into each other, but instead he walked through her. She stopped walking and dropped backpack as she stared ahead with wide eyes. She blinked and whipped around to see him standing still as well. He looked around and then shook his head as he shivered and walked away with a "that was weird" mutter. Santana walked him walk away, terrified and confused about what had happened.

"Hey!" Santana yelled at him once she snapped out of her reverie, but he just kept on walking, as if he hadn't heard her at all. She looked around again, but everyone that was walking didn't pay attention to her. She ran to every person she saw walking and frantically waved a hand in their faces, but they all walked passed her as if they didn't see her. And they didn't. Santana slowly walked back to where she dropped her backpack and began walking away from it all, not really knowing where she was going. As she walked she saw an alley and decided to cut through it, at least there she won't run into people and through them. As she walked she looked down and brought both her hands to her head, wondering what was going on.

She wasn't paying attention, since she didn't think she'd needed to anymore, so it was a surprise when something flew into her back and she fell forward and hit the cement face-first. She hissed in pain and gripped her forehead. She snapped her head back to glare at whatever it was and saw a frog. She blinked at it and it tilted its head as it stared back at her. _The hell?_ Suddenly it jumped toward her and kicked her in the shoulder harder than a frog should have and she winced as she stood up and backed away from it. But it still jumped towards her and when she turned around to run, there were more frogs, all staring at her. She closed her eyes as they all started advancing towards her in a circle, waiting for what would come next, when she heard someone call out her name.

"Santana!" Santana opened her eyes and saw Rachel Berry suddenly next to her. Santana wasn't sure how she had gotten there, but she was secretly thankful that she didn't have to go down alone, because of frogs of all things and with Rachel of all people.

"What the hell, Manhands?" Santana snapped, calling Rachel her usual nickname she gave her. Rachel looked sad for a second but then turned her attention back on the frogs and nudged Santana with her elbow.

"I think we have to attack them with one of those pins, so we should do it now while we have the opportunity." With that Rachel ran forward, away from Santana and farther down the alley, making half the frogs follow her before Santana could say anything. Santana didn't know what was going on, but when Rachel started moving around and actually hit some of the frogs, she felt as though she could as well. Almost like all of a suddenly she had a physical boost to her strength. She turned around and faced the rest of the mutant frogs and when one jumped at her, she dodged it and hit it with her fist, sending it flying and evaporating in the air, leaving more pins in its wake.

As she kept hitting each one, she felt sudden pains from time to time that were more painful than when she got hit. She looked over her shoulder to see Rachel fending off worse than her, she looked more tired and every hit hurt the both of them pretty bad. Santana couldn't do anything, so she just concentrated on her frogs and after a while she had gotten all of them killed, or whatever it was called that happened when she hit them. She let out big breaths and looked over to see Rachel done as well. Santana walked up to her as the smaller brunette rubbed her sore shoulder with a slightly pained expression. Once Santana was in front of her, she crossed her arms impatiently.

"What the fuck is going on, Manhands?" Rachel took a couple of deep breaths before moving her arm down and evening her breaths.

"I assure you, Santana, that I wasn't expecting you to be my partner, of all people," Santana gave her a confused look and opened her mouth to talk but Rachel cut her off again. "Don't tell me you haven't read the messages yet." Rachel reached into her pocket and pulled out her bedazzled phone and held it out in front of Santana. "The text message said you were my partner. The text was very informative of what was going on, if I say so myself, so I recommend you read it or I could just-"

"I'll take my phone out, just shut up already!" Santana yelled and Rachel closed her mouth. Just then, Rachel's phone vibrated in her hand and they both looked down at it. Santana opened up her backpack and took out her phone and saw it lit up with unread texts. She opened it to see three texts and opened the first one up as Rachel read the two newest ones sent to her phone. Sure enough, the text told Santana about some kind of "game" and that Rachel was her "partner" that she needed to survive and win the game. "No fucking way…" Santana muttered, making Rachel look up at her. "This has got to be some sick joke, a game? You being my partner? What the fuck is this?"

"Have you read the last part?" Rachel said quietly, and Santana looked up to see Rachel looking at Santana sadly. Santana shook her head and looked back at the text, and at the very end it explained what winning the game meant. Santana's eyes widened as she read it and she nearly dropped her phone. She couldn't believe it, and had to read the entire text over and over, not just the part of Rachel being her partner.

_Santana Lopez,_

_Welcome to the game. Every challenger must have a partner, or else they will be erased from the game. That partner will be with you for all of the game, and you need to work together in order to prevent being erased._

_You're partner: Rachel Berry_

_The game is meant to be taken seriously, for the reason that winning the game means having a second chance at life. All percipients of the game have died in some way or another, and must complete each daily objective. There are seven objectives, seven days. Within those seven days, you must complete each objective before the day is over or you are erased from the game. Those that make it to the seventh day must do the final objectives with their partners, and if they complete it, they win back their lives. Good luck to all challengers_

"This _definitely _has got to be some sick joke." Santana said again, and Rachel watched as Santana stared at her phone in disbelief.

"It's not…" Rachel said sadly. "Santana, we're dead." Santana looked up at Rachel and shook her head angrily.

"What kind of joke is this, RuPaul?" Rachel blinked at Santana, clearly confused.

"Are you suggesting _I _did all this?"

"I'm not dead, and neither are you. We see each other, so we can't be dead," Santana groaned and rubbed her head. "I was at school today, I saw everyone and…and we're _not dead_."

"How do you explain what we just did?" Rachel snapped angrily, making Santana jump in surprise. "Haven't you walked by anyone? Or almost into someone? No one can see us; we suddenly have gotten pins that allow us to fight. We just fought _frogs_, and they just evaporated it the air," Santana could tell Rachel was trying to keep her voice even throughout her entire rant, not like it mattered though, because she was right. No one could see either of them, and that meant no one can hear them either. Santana remembered when she waved her hand in front all those people's faces, and none of them reacted. She even went through a guy and all he had was the shivers after.

"I'm…we're…dead…" Santana finally said and Rachel just nodded. They both stood in silence, looking at their phone's as realization came crashing down to Santana. "We're dead." Rachel nodded again and Santana looked between Rachel and her phone before clearing her throat. "Okay, we're dead, so we, like, get another chance at life?"

"That seems to be idea behind the game," Rachel said with a shrug and looked through the messages. "There's more information in the text messages." Santana looked back down at her phone and looked through them.

"Seriously? Our clothes matter?" Santana asked as she finished reading the second text with the "game information".

"Apparently, our clothes have defensive points, I believe they are called that, but I can't be sure."

"Yeah, I can read, RuPaul." Rachel rolled her eyes and crossed her arms at Santana.

"Since we are working with each other for a week, the least you can do is be civil with me." Santana rolled her eyes and looked at Rachel's clothes.

"Fine, _Berry_," Rachel rolled her eyes again but smiled lightly. "No wonder we sucked so bad, look at _your _clothes." Rachel looked down at her clothes with a confused look.

"I always thought they were fine…"

"They suck, I mean I always knew you had horrible fashion sense, but not so bad that they'd make us almost die." Rachel frowned and played with her skirt uncomfortably. Santana sighed and looked at the floor with all the pins and began picking all of them up.

"Whatever, we'll just buy new clothes, like the text said, and you've need new clothes for a hell of a long time." Their phones vibrated again and Santana cursed, muttering "what now" as she ignored it and continued to pick up pins.

"Reach McKinley High, you have 90 minutes or face erasure," Rachel said. "Apparently, by the Reapers."

"What?" Santana asked as she put all her pins in her backpack. Suddenly pain shot through their hand and Santana dropped the back and immediately gripped her wrist. "The fuck…" She looked down at it and her eyes widened to see a timer on her palm. "W-what is this?" Rachel walked over and showed Santana her screen, revealing the new text message.

"It's today's objective." Santana scowled and shoved Rachel's phone away.

"I meant the timer on our hands." Rachel shrugged and looked down at it curiously.

"I've stopped questioning everything a long time ago."

"Damn it, we're gonna have to run," She turned back to Rachel. "I hope you run fast, Ma- Berry." Rachel smiled at the correction Santana made and nodded.

"I make sure to use my elliptical every day since an active lifestyle is the healthiest, and I promise you that it will definitely pay off now." Santana nodded and quickly turned around and began running, catching Rachel off guard and making her run after her. It wasn't long before Rachel was running alongside Santana, and the Latina had to admit she was impressed Rachel could run with her like that. Santana smirked and ran faster, making Rachel huff and try to keep up, but the brunette had short legs and ended up falling behind the entire run.

By the time they made it to the school they were surprised that they weren't as exhausted as they thought they would be. Santana slowed into a walk easily and turned around as Rachel tried to do the same thing, but somehow tripped. Rachel instinctively reached forward and Santana quickly walked closer to Rachel and caught the smaller brunette in her arms. Rachel let out a breath and looked up to see Santana giving her a death glare, making Rachel jump away from her.

"Sorry…" Rachel apologized quietly as she looked down.

"Just make sure to watch it next time, Hobbit." Rachel flinched at the words and muttered another apology as Santana turned around and began walking toward the doors leading to the school. Santana just in front of the school entrance and turned to look back at Rachel with a grin.

"You know, you looked kind of badass when you found me and were fighting and shit, but all that went away when you're clothes made you suck and you almost ate dirt." Rachel gaped at Santana and as Santana turned around, she heard Rachel talk quietly behind her.

"Did you really think I was…badass?" Santana didn't answer, instead she reached for the door handles. She went to close her hands around the handle, but instead her hand went through it. _Of course_. Santana sighed and moved her hand toward the actual door and saw her arm go through the glass and on the other side. Rachel walked up behind her and saw Santana's arm and did the same, and saw her arm go through as well. She closed her eyes and walked through the door, then turned around and waited for Santana to do the same. Santana took a deep breath, walked through, and shuddered at the feeling. Rachel gave her a sideways grin. "It feels odd, doesn't it?" Santana nodded.

"You can say that." Santana looked around the school before looking at her phone that she never put back in her backpack. "Now what? We're here." Rachel shrugged and looked at her phone.

"Hey…have you noticed the date?" Santana looked at Rachel with a confused look before looking back at her phone. Sure enough, the date had said it was the Monday of the next week.

"What the fuck? We lost four days? But it was Tuesday last time I checked."

"Last time you checked we were both alive…" Santana's head snapped up and she glared at Rachel, who muttered another apology. Santana sighed and walked down the hall.

"Might as well walk around, classes ended anyways." Rachel nodded and they walked down the hall silently, taking in their surroundings. It was odd, being dead yet still able to walk down the halls of McKinley high school just like when they were alive. The only difference was no one saw them, and their former roles didn't matter anymore. Santana wasn't a Cheerio anymore, and Rachel wasn't Glee captain.

When they walked by the choir room, Rachel stopped walking and looked through the still open door. Santana, who had kept on walking ahead, stopped and looked back at Rachel. Rachel stared inside for a few seconds before walking in the room, making Santana yell out her name and follow her in the room.

It was empty inside, despite the doors being open, and Rachel walked over to the piano. She reached out a hand even though she expected it to just go through the piano, but found that it didn't, and yanked her hand away in shock. Santana, who had been watching, raised her eyebrows in surprise and walked next to Rachel and did the same. Just like Rachel, she was able to touch it and she didn't yank her had away. Instead she left her hand there and looked at Rachel, who seemed to be frozen in shock and the hand that had touched the piano was gripping her shirt.

Santana slowly reached up with her other hand and grabbed Rachel's wrist. She gently brought Rachel's hand back down and onto the piano. Rachel didn't know what to think of the Santana's suddenly gentle touch, so she just concentrated on the cool surface of the piano. Santana let go of Rachel's wrist and the two stayed near the piano in silence. Looking at the piano made Santana think of what had happened to her the last time she was at Glee Club, and she wasn't sure how long she stood there thinking about it, but Rachel removing her hand from the piano and moving to the seats made her snap out of her reverie. Santana watched Rachel sit down at one of the chairs at the front of the room and Santana followed her and sat next to her.

"Thank you." Rachel said quietly, as if she was afraid talking louder would destroy peaceful atmosphere they had around each other, for the first time ever. Santana scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Don't get used to it, Stubbles." Instead of feeling hurt, Rachel just chuckled and shook her head. Rachel looked around the room and all of its instruments.

"We'll never be able to be in here and sing with everyone ever again…" Rachel frowned and looked down.

"Didn't you read any of the texts? We just have to win, and you'll be able to sing with them again." Rachel stayed silent and Santana thought she didn't hear her, but finally Rachel spoke again.

"So will you." Santana scoffed.

"I got kicked out for siding with Coach Sylvester, remember?" Santana shook her head with a scowl. "I bet no one missed me."

"I did." Santana looked at Rachel, who was staring at Santana. Santana rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Yeah right, I bet all you were worried about was this stupid club instead."

"That's not-"

"Let's just go," Santana snapped. "I've had enough of this room." Rachel opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again and sighed. She got up and followed Santana out the room. They walked down the hall in silence and Rachel wondered where Santana was going until she found herself going outside toward the football field, where the Cheerios practiced. Santana walked to the bleachers and sat down on the lowest level. Rachel quietly did the same and looked out to the direction Santana was looking, and saw Brittany in the middle of all the cheerios as they practiced. Brittany looked down all the time, and the bubbly personality and look were all gone, leaving an empty shell. Santana's fists tightened as she watched her best friend, and Rachel looked down at it before placing her hand on top of Santana's.

"I don't need your sympathy." Santana said suddenly, but her voice slightly cracked and she didn't bother moving her hand away from Rachel's. Rachel wasn't sure how long they were there, but when she looked at the timer on her hand, she knew whatever was coming should have come already. So she looked around, expecting something to jump out at them. When she heard noises under the bleachers, she turned around slightly and began looking through the spaces in them. Santana finally snapped her gaze away from Brittany and looked at Rachel.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought I heard something." Santana just shrugged and looked back at Santana sadly while Rachel kept looking around. She was about to turn around when she saw something small pass by so quickly it was just a blur, and Rachel squinted her eyes. She stood up and tugged on Santana's hand, making the taller brunette stand up as well.

"I want to stay." Santana mumble distractedly as she looked worriedly at Brittany, who was clearly struggling with all the other Cheerios and Sue showed no mercy at her. Rachel didn't answer back and led Santana under the bleachers and walked to far end of it, where they were under the highest seat level. Santana yanked her hand out of Rachel's grip and crossed her arms as she looked around. She was about to open her mouth when something jumped down, making both their jaws drop. In front of them was a tiny, almost stuffed-doll like, mini cheerio.

"What…is that?" Rachel asked when she found her voice again. Santana, just shook her head and made a noise that resembled something like an "I don't know". The Mini Cheerio jumped up and down excitedly and looked back and forth between Rachel and Santana. With a high pitched noise, it charged at them with others dropping down through the spaces. Santana cursed and began backing up.

"You want to fight, c'mon then." Santana taunted, and Rachel began walking to the other side of the bleachers, making half of the group of the mini cheerios follow her. When one threw itself at Santana, she dodged it and kicked it to the other mini cheerios, making them all fall over like dominos. Santana grinned at the sight, finding it extremely amusing. Rachel knocked each mini cheerio that came her way, making them skid across the floor or slam into the bleachers. The two kept fighting what seemed like an endless amount of cheerios until finally, they beat the last one that flew itself at them. They stood still for a few moments, expecting another group to come out of nowhere, and when none came at them they both let out a sigh of relief.

"I told you I heard something." Rachel said and Santana rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." Rachel frowned and looked at the ground before slightly looking up at Santana through her bangs.

"We make a good team." Rachel said quietly, and Santana wasn't sure she heard her at first. Santana opened her mouth to retort something, but closed it again, before opening it again.

"We do." Rachel smiled at Santana and Santana gave her a tight smile.


End file.
